Unlike cars, most planes can’t simply switch to batteries. More immediate solutions to reduce aviation emissions include designing more fuel-efficient jet engines, electrifying ground operations, and “Sustainable aviation fuel, currently made mostly from used cooking oil and animal fats, will eventually “It is an “e-fuel” made from hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
But while alternative jet fuels may be cleaner than petroleum-based fuels, they still produce emissions. CO2 Hydrogen cannot be produced when burned in an engine, which is why airlines and manufacturers have spent millions of dollars developing it.2Hydrogen-fueled aircraft. Recently, in early June, the U.S. Congress passed a bipartisan bill directing the Federal Aviation Administration to research and develop a strategy for using hydrogen fuel within the next year.
Hydrogen aviation efforts include planes that burn liquid hydrogen directly or are fueled by gaseous hydrogen.2 Through fuel cells. In a fuel cell system, hydrogen flows in and drives an electrochemical reaction to produce electricity, which in turn powers an electric motor to spin a propeller. Unlike burning hydrogen or kerosene, using fuel cells does not produce harmful nitrogen oxides or particulate matter.
Universal Hydrogen prototype, modified Dash 8 The model is 1.2-Megawatt fuel cells and 800It was fitted with a kilowatt electric motor, but also retained one of its two conventional oil-burning engines.
ZeroAvia, an American startup, has built and flown a hydrogen fuel cell plane. The California-based company 19ZeroAvia flew the 10-seater aircraft nearly 12 times from commercial airfields in the UK last year.116 The company raised $1 million in a Series C funding round in November, with investors including Airbus, United Airlines, and American Airlines.
If you add fuel cells and liquid hydrogen tanks to a propeller plane, it will be possible to 90 percent reduction in life cycle emissions compared to the original aircraft. 2023 The analysis, by the International Council on Clean Transportation, a nonprofit think tank, assumes that hydrogen would be produced using only water and renewable electricity, rather than fossil fuels, which is how nearly all hydrogen is currently produced.
The shortage of green hydrogen supply was one of many obstacles facing Universal Hydrogen. Seattle Times The article also discussed the company’s plans to build out new logistics infrastructure to deliver hydrogen, and the inconvenient reality that storing hydrogen on an airplane takes up more space than traditional jet fuel, leaving less room for ticketed passengers.
Universal Hydrogen was also working on upgrading larger regional aircraft. ATR 72The company operates out of a facility in Toulouse, France, near Airbus headquarters. The company’s French branch will also be liquidated, Cousin said in a letter to shareholders.
Even if other companies were able to crack the code and scale up the technology, aviation experts say today’s fuel cells cannot produce enough power to power the large, long-range planes that carry the majority of air traffic. CO2 Emissions will only grow, but fuel cell planes could still play an important role in reducing planet-warming pollution on short-haul flights, and could lay the groundwork for a cleaner aviation market overall.
